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Housing problems extend far beyond those at the very critical end who are either homeless or facing homelessness, according to requests for help received by Citizens Advice Guernsey.
The issue of homelessness hit the headlines last month when a new charity was launched to tackle the problem - but people living in insecure or unsafe housing is as big a problem for many people, says CAG.
Affordability, poorly maintained, and insecure rental agreements were all cited as problems by people living in the island last year, along with people in abusive relationships who were unable to move for various reasons.
The charity collates data on the different enquiries it receives every year, and the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Annie Ashmead, said last year the largest enquiry area was housing, again.
A fifth of all enquiries - from a total of 3,500 clients - related to housing concerns.
The topic has been the leading cause of concern for CAG clients for the past four years with more than 2,000 people asking for help during each of those years.
Ms Ashmead said housing conditions are one of the biggest problems they are asked about.
"(Clients) might be perfectly happy where they're living, but, and I know it's inevitable with some of the older properties with damp and mould, but there are things you can do to try and mitigate that a bit like letting fresh air circulate but there are certainly some units of accommodation that are in quite an appalling condition. I don't understand why landlords would not maintain their properties because to maintain your property you're maintaining the value of your property as well, but we do have people coming to us who live in probably quite poorly maintained properties.
"Their concern is that if they actually do (speak out)...there is the fear that if you say, for instance, you've called the Environmental Agency, 'can you come and see my property? I've told the landlord about it, but it seems to be that really damp', and if they come around and say, 'I'm sorry, this is not fit for human habitation and say this place is going to have to close', where is that person going to go?
"I can understand why people may be reluctant to do anything about it if the landlord is not doing anything about it."
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